Twilio Takes On Email with SendGrid Acquisition

As children, we learn of mystical beasts call unicorns. These elegant, horse-like creatures roamed the countryside of fairy tales and children stories long before they were discovered as real. Well, sort of.  In the tech space, there have been a number of companies coined “unicorns.” And this week, one of the most prominent is doing some flexing.

Twilio announced a definitive agreement to purchase SendGrid. The email API platform comes at the cost of approximately $2 billion in an all-stock transaction. The addition brings together two cloud pioneers, creating a prominent cloud communications platform.

 The transaction is expected to close before the end of Q2. And with the deal finalized, the newly formed entity can deliver platform with the power to manage voice, video, messaging and now email. Twilio notes the two firms are currently responsible for supporting about a half trillion interactions a year – and, I’d expect this number to continue growing.

“This is a tremendous day for all SendGrid customers, employees and shareholders,” said Sameer Dholakia, SendGrid’s chief executive officer. “Our two companies have always shared a common goal - to create powerful communications experiences for businesses by enabling developers to easily embed communications into the software they are building. Our mission is to help our customers deliver communications that drive engagement and growth, and this combination will allow us to accelerate that mission for our customers.”

There is no shortage of enthusiasm in the cloud communications arena. While not new at this point, we are still in the maturing stages of a market rich with innovation and revenue opportunity.

Are your communications in the cloud, yet?

Edited by Maurice Nagle